Blog | Language, Learning and Culture

Blowin' in the Wind

It is often forgotten that the windmill had a great influence on the development of the western two-thirds of the United States.

The American Windmill Museum in Lubbock, Texas, writes that windmills from that period "tell the story of ingenuity, hardship, success, and failure of the early settlers as they applied a new technology to conditions in an environment with which they were barely familiar.

By the time Bob Dylan in 1962 penned "Blowin' in the Wind," no more than a handful of those companies were left.

Although Dylan was discussing social change, he might just as easily have been referring to Dutch energy policy fifty-five years later.

All Dutch trains now run on renewable wind energy, a full year before schedule.

"Blowin' in the Wind" brought Dylan his first national television appearance. Earlier this year, to illustrate the success of Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Dutch Railways), company president Roger van Boxtel attached himself to a windmill.